Personality-Targeted Interventions for Substance Use and Misuse

Personality factors have been implicated in risk for substance use disorders through longitudinal and neurobiologic studies for over four decades. Only recently, however, have targeted interventions been developed to assist individuals with personality risk factors for substance use disorders manage their risk. This article reviews current practices in personality-targeted interventions and the eight randomised trials examining the efficacy of such approaches with respect to reducing and preventing substance use and misuse.

Results indicate a moderate mean effect size for personality-targeted approaches across several different substance use outcomes and intervention settings and formats.

Personality-targeted interventions offer several advantages over traditional substance use interventions, particularly when attempting to prevent development of problems in high-risk individuals or when addressing concurrent mental health problems in brief interventions.